Month: May 2013

ENERGY / ENVIRONMENT Stockholm City Hall is the first building in Sweden, and the first town hall outside the UK, to be environment classified under the BREEAM In-Use standard; a new standard for environmental classification of existing buildings.

Photo: Yanan Li Stockholm City Hall.

The City Hall is the symbol of Stockholm, and first building in the city to be environmentally classified. The goal is for about 100 of the city’s buildings to be environmentally classified within five years.

Cultural attitudes are often opposed to greening. The City Hall’s certification is a testament to the city’s environmental efforts, says Madeleine Sjöstedt (FP) (Minister for Culture and Real Estate Commissioner).

– Over SEK 200 million has been spent on greening, and improving the energy efficiency of city buildings. The aim is to contribute to the city’s goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2015. All properties that the city owns and manages will be environmentally classified. Having completed the classification of the town hall, the next building to be classified is the Oscar Theatre, says Madeleine Sjöstedt (FP) (Minister for Culture and Real Estate Commissioner).

In 1897, a wealthy American businessman named Horace Dobbins began construction on a private, for-profit bicycle superhighway that would stretch from Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles. It may seem like a preposterous notion now—everyone knows Angelenos don’t get out of their cars—but at the time, amidst the height of a pre-automobile worldwide cycling boom, the idea attracted the attention of some hugely powerful players. And it almost got built…

A study out of Nashville by Smart Growth America provides more evidence that building walkable development in existing communities is best for a city’s bottom line.

Nashville’s “The Gulch” — a mixed-use development downtown — generates a much greater public return than more suburban developments in the same city. Image: Cumberland Region Tomorrow

SGA recently examined three different developments in the Music City. One was a large-lot, traditional suburban-style development called Bradford Hills built on greenfield site. Another was a “new urban”-style, mixed-use, walkable development also built on a greenfield, called Lennox Village. The third — known as The Gulch — was a mixed-use, compact housing and office development with retail and dining, built on a brownfield between Nashville’s Music Row and downtown…

The Power of 10 is a concept PPS uses to start off a Placemaking process. The idea is that it’s not enough to have just one great place in a neighborhood- you need a number of them to create a truly lively city or town. It’s not enough to have only one superior neighborhood in a city- you need to provide people all over town with close-to-home opportunities to take pleasure in public life. And, it’s not enough to have one livable city or town in a region- you need a collection of interesting communities.

According to a new report backed by the UN, coal mining and cattle ranching are the industries with the hardest impact on the environment. It costs more to fix the damage that these industries cause to the environment than industries generates in profit.

According to the report “Natural Capital at Risk – The Top 100 Externalities of Business”, coal power is the most hazardous industry in the world. The damage that the coal industry causes to the environment and on human health is primarily from greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. In East Asia the regional coal industry generates 443 billion dollars annually, and the North American this industry generates a profit of 247 billion dollars annually, according to the report. In both cases, the costs of preventing and repairing the damage that the industries have on the environment and on human health exceed the profits generated, as reported by the Environmental Leader.

Livestock farming in South America ranks as the second most dangerous environmental sector, because of the negative effect that cattle have on the sea, lakes and soils. The environmental cost amounts to $ 354 billion annually, while livestock production generates $ 18 billion annually.

There are bright spots in life, new modern (safe) bike racks are regularly being installed in places like underground- train, bus stations.

But newly constructed venues seem to be an exception. It is not cyclist friendly; there is not a bike rack in sight. In a recent press release came from the large Småland furniture manufacturer (IKEA) regarding a trading post built at the southern city of Stockholm in the old slaughterhouse area. Quote from IKEA’s press release. “Its central location also makes the market place becomes easy to reach by public transport ? and in the next breath will notify you that the planned number of parking places is 4000 ?.

The message is: Going by public transport is great, but we are creating up to 4,000 car parking spaces, and have not considered cyclists and their needs.

But there is hope. This is a message in the subway close to IKEA, a new sports arena taking place:

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The Tele2 arena have made 1000 bike parking places available from start. Hopefully this is the modern way of planning / thinking, and thus less room for “the bewildered cyclist ?” looking desperately for a space to park his bike – nice.